Because digital music has cut down on the profitability of selling CDs in a land-based retail store, Internet sales have a better chance for profits for a small CD business. Downloads may be making fewer people buy CDs overall, but the low overhead of selling CDs online makes it the most profitable, low-risk venture for a small CD business.
Instructions
1. Find a source for your CDs. If you are a small business, you will likely not have enough purchasing power to buy directly from the distributors. Look instead at buying large lots of CDs online and in second-hand stores and then splitting those up into individual CD sales.
2. List your CDs for sale online. The easiest and quickest way to get started is to sell through third-party sites like eBay, Amazon.com and half.com. EBay charges a small fee, 15 cents, to list each CD while the other two sites have no listing fee for CDs. All three charge a commission of various amounts on each CD sale.
3. Organize your CD collection alphabetically so that you can quickly find each CD as it sells. Your reputation on all of these sites depends on how quickly and accurately you fill each order.
4. Package each CD in a small box or a padded envelope to protect it in the mail. If the CD arrives damaged, you could be liable for the entire purchase price or for refunding the price plus the shipping cost if it is sent back as damaged. Expect the loss of a few CDs as a part of your business costs each month.
5. Keep records of your expenditures and sales figures in order to report your income at the end of the year. Keep a spreadsheet for easy bookkeeping, or print out receipts and weekly sales figures and file them in a yearly tax file.
